Hi,
When we hyphenate the adjectives, the usual reasoning given is that it is done to prevent people from thinking the adjectives modify the noun individually when the adjectives hyphenated should be considered as one word. Fine, but how a person can get confused when taken individually, a modification in individual term would be silly for some obvious cases, if not silly for most of hyphenated adjective cases.
crude-oil production is down.
Here, crude and oil should be thought of as one word so it is linked by a hyphen, but no confusion will arise if left unhyphenated. No one will think 'crude production' would be the right phrasal construction; whereas 'oil production' seems to be the valid construction.
peace-making vows
Again, let us take the hyphenated adjectives individually and apply to the noun: apply peace to the 'vows' seems to produce a good word -- peace vows -- whereas applying 'making' to 'vows', does not.
feeble-minded people
Again, applying 'feeble' to the noun 'people' will produce a good word -- feeble people -- wheareas, applying 'minded' alone to the noun will produce a noun that is not good -- minded peopple.
So, my contention is asserting that hyphenation is necessary for adjectives modifying a noun is necessary, when a person is trying put forth a position that those two (or more) adjectives are linked in content or substance doesn't seem logical, at least to me. Can you help?
Sorry, the content of my inquiry seemed basic in nature and that is why I posted here.